The Homebrewer's Guide to the Galaxy

Prelude

This is the replacement of the link page on electronics-irc.net, hopefully seen as a new and practical form.

It has been broken down into the sections / steps of homemade electronics, to provide a quick reference for your particular problem.

Enjoy!

Theory - know thy enemy

General

• http://www.eznec.com/Amateur/RMS_Power.pdf > Concepts of AVG and RMS explained simple and clearly.
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transistor > Wikipedia is a great source for theory of electronics too. Here, the transistor.
• http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Electronics > WikiBooks, Electronics subject.
• http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/hframe.html > HyperPhysics information web: nice things about electronics, physics, etc.
• http://electronicdesign.com > The authority on emerging technologies and design.

Chip / Circuit specific

• http://ouwehand.net/~peter/lcd/lcd.shtml > How to control a HD44780-based LCD.
• http://www.buildorbuy.org/processors.html > Modern PC CPU overview.
• http://www.freeduino.org/ > Lots of AVR tutorials.
• http://www.keil.com/dd/search_parm.asp > Parametric ARM based microcontroller search.

Helpful software

• http://www.miscel.dk/ > Free windows program with lots of formulas, predefined schematics etc.
• http://www.tech-systems-labs.com/freesoftware.htm > tech-systems-labs: Turn your computer in a electronic engineering laboratory for free.
• http://atanua.org/ > Sol_HSA's real-time (educational) logic simulator.

Programming aka Black Magic

• http://docs.huihoo.com/help-pc/ > IBM PC BIOS/DOS/hardware programming reference.
• http://courses.ece.uiuc.edu/ece390/books/labmanual/ > ECE 291 docs: ASM, PC BIOS, I/O ports programming.
• http://www.comptechdoc.org/ > Computer Technology Documentation Project - networking, OS, programming guides/tutorials.
• http://www.computer-engineering.org/ps2protocol/ > The PS/2 Mouse/Keyboard Protocol.
• http://sandiding.tripod.com/Bertys.html > Pinouts of a lot of cellphone LCDs, together with sample code to use them with a PIC mC.

Practice - Build it and He will come

Test equipment

• http://www.leasametric.com/ > Tested, refurbished measurement equipment with guarantee.

Datasheets and pinouts

• http://www.hardwarebook.net > Hardwarebook: connector pinouts, circuits and more.
• http://www.marsport.org.uk/smd/mainframe.htm > *THE* SMD Code Book.
• http://pinouts.ru > Pinouts, connectors, everything you ever wanted to know about 'da Plug'.
• http://www.hifi-remote.com/files > Motorola datasheets.
• http://www.xs4all.nl/~tcsprod/technics/rj45.htm > RJ45.

Part sourcing

• http://digikey.com > Digi-Key, order electronics stuff even if you are not a company (but a human).
• http://octopart.com/ > The Google-equivalent of a electronics parts search-engine.

Schematic and PCB tools

• http://imaginationcubed.com/ > Draw-together Java whiteboard.
• http://www.cadsoft.de/ > EAGLE Layout Editor.
• http://www.engadget.com/2012/03/04/circuitlab-brings-schematic-design-and-sharing-to-the-browser-v/ > Schematic in web browser for easy sharing and drawing.

PCB manufacturers

• http://elprint.dk/index.php > Elprint is an excellent PCB manufacture. They use Macaos, and thus allows you to order whenever you want.
• http://www.olimex.com/pcb/index.html > Make some more PCBs.
• http://www.eurocircuits.com/home/eurocircuits.aspx > Make PCBs.

Collections - Compulsive hoarding is OK

General

• http://epanorama.net > ePanorama.net electronics-resources.
• http://discovercircuits.com > OMG, it's like an ePanorama, with weird colours!
• http://nd47.coderock.org/log_chan_electronics.html > Domen's pasted-URL's collector.
• http://ihrisko.org/~sandi/links/ > Many electronics-related links.
• http://www.zytrax.com/tech/ > Zytrax tech info - quick hands-on access to the Questions of Life!
• http://www.electronics-lab.com/ > Electronics Lab - Home.
• http://hyvatti.iki.fi/~jaakko/pic/pong > Jaakko - PIC12F675 8-PIN PONG.
• http://www.nomad.ee/PIC/first.txt > PIC simple LED flasher.
• http://beyondlogic.org/ > Beyond Logic.

Schematics and manuals for commercial stuff

• http://bama.sbc.edu/ > Lots of manuals and schematics for old test equipment.
• http://www.blue-nokia.com/ > Nokia manuals + firmware.
• http://hobi-elektronika.net > a nice page, a lot of schematics here for various electronics crap here.
• http://www.eserviceinfo.com/ > When your aunt's old TV breaks down or the washing machine stops pumping water, this is the place for a service manual.